Hermione walked side by side with Ronald, They'd ventured onto the grounds at his suggestion for some fresh air and she'd shrugged off his arm as she walked beside him.
She knew it was rude of her, that it wasn't his fault, but her skin just crawled where he touched her.
She focused on her feet , not wanting to look at him.
"I'm sorry...I just..."
Her words were cut off when Severus's patronus filled the air in front of her, but before she got a chance to listen, everything went black.
She was aware of pain in her back, like she'd been run over by a train. The Hogwarts express in fact. Repeatedly.
Her vision still eluded her, fuzzy and colourless. Her mouth tasted like metal and felt stuffed with cotton wool.
She was hyper aware of the wet grass she was laid in, as the cold and dampness spread through the fabric of her clothes.
The pain in her back screamed at her, until with sheer force of will she managed to push herself over so she was laid face down in the grass, no longer on her back.
She had to use just the power of her arms, as her legs weren't listening to her right now.
Her breathing was laboured, as every deep breath caused her back to scream and her ribs to ache.
Sound was escaping her, she was deaf to the world though from her position on the ground she could feel the thundering vibrations of movement all around her.
Occasionally she would feel the displacement in the air around her, as someone or something moved close to her.
Bright flashing colours spread through the air, purple, red and sickly green.
A memory emerged.
Severus's voice.
Just fireworks Hermione.
Only fireworks.
Fireworks.
She let the darkness take her back.
oOo
Rage boiled in him, he had him. He fucking had him and he let him go.
Polyjuice. Of all the things in the world, fucking polyjuice potion. There was a reason it was illegal. He was a potion's master for fucks sake, how could he not have figured this out sooner?
Sending his patronus to her, praying she would get it in time he flew across the castle and towards the main doors.
Suddenly he felt...something. He didn't know what it was, but it was soul deep and he just knew it was her. Knew she was in danger.
With an angry roar he'd thrown himself into an apparation.
The castle, recognised him as a previous headmaster, felt his urgent need and let the wards melt around him.
With a deafening thunder-like crack, he apparated onto the ground and next to the main gates, just in time to see a flash of purple spell-fire dissipating as Hermione fell to the floor.
The slimy little bastard had hexed her in the back.
With a roar of outrage he tackled the boy to the ground, then with his wand in the boy's throat he threw a crucio and watched him writhe, feeling the darkness creeping up inside him like a living thing...agitating him, angering him, arousing him.
Yes. Suffer boy. Suffer..
He flicked his wand and with a twist of his wrist the boy was howling as his back arched.
He heard a crack as one of his wrists snapped.
Kill him. Make him suffer. make him pay.
The darkness surrounded him with familiarity like a long lost friend, gone but not forgotten.
He felt the boy writhe under his body and his wand. The boy had soiled himself, vomited allover himself and wet his pants and still Severus pushed him.
Suddenly he felt his concentration, and his spell break, as his arms were being pinned to his side as he was lifted bodily from the ground until his feet weren't touching the floor.
"Let it go brother.I share your anger, but do not let it consume you"
Margorian.
The stallion had pulled him away from the boy's body and held him aloft with his arms pinned at his side.
"Let me go" He growled, attempting to kick out at the stallion as the darkness still writhed under his skin.
"Do not make a decision that cannot be taken back. Your mare needs you here"
With that Margorian spun until he was holding Severus facing Hermione.
She was face down on the ground, Neville was on his knees next to her talking but she wasn't responding.
She looked dead.
Fear and nausea replaced the darkness, pushing it away as if it was nothing, as he took in the form of Hermione on the floor he fought to be released for another reason. Margorain let him go, and the instant his feet touched the ground he was flying towards Hermoine and sinking onto his knees in the wet grass beside her.
"Hermione? Hermione can you hear me?!"
"She's been hexed!" Neville said with concern.
Despite his worry, Severus managed to level a scathing look at the boy that cowed him. No shit Sherlock.
He ran his wand in diagnostics, though was not happy with what he was seeing, thankfully he could hear Poppy and Minerva, as Minerva apparated them onto the grounds.
Suddenly there was a flash of Spellfire and an outraged yell as a vicious hex hit Margorian.
Severus quickly threw up a protego around Hermione and Neville, grabbing the boys collar he wrenched him until he was inches from his face.
"Protect her" He growled and the boy just nodded desperately as Severus launched himself into the fight.
The boy had taken advantage of their distraction and thrown a nasty hex at Margorian, which left a deep welt on the stallions chest, that bled freely.
He could hear Bane and Ronan yelling in the distance, just now catching up to the much faster Margorian, and Kingsley and Gerard too were approaching
Panicked, and afraid Ronald was throwing dark and destructive hexes and curses wildly around him, aiming for maximum damage and just hoping to get a hit.
Severus parried them all, until the boy unleashed fiendfyre which roared up into the shape of a bull.
The Centaurs snorted in fear and remembrance, but did not back off, trying to find a way around the fiendfyre as the great bull lowered its head and lowed at them.
Severus was desperately trying to contain a poisonous vapour the boy had summoned, before they all succumbed to it.
When Kingsley and Gerard attempted to apprehend the boy he threw a vicious severing hex that caught Kingsley in the face , causing blood to spurt from the wound as he fell back with a howl.
Suddenly realising what he'd done...attacking the minister for magic, his panic only increased as he desperately attempted to push the others back so that he could flee.
Gerard had fallen to his knees to help Kingsley , and seeing the weak link the chain Ron aimed his wand and cast , as a sickly green glow lit the area.
oOo
She was still on her stomach , though much drier than before, most likely due to the fact that she seemed to be laid on a bed, and not outside in the grass anymore.
Her vision was still blurry as it swum around her like water or steam.
Her hands clenched involuntarily in the soft bedsheets, The copper taste was still in her mouth, her tongue thick and heavy.
She felt as though she was moving, swimming or floating maybe... though she was quite certain she wasn't.
Despite her best efforts her legs still didn't want to answer to her, and the pain in her back was still there, though not as bad... it was as though she was looking at everything through a screen door, everything was vague and incoherent and she became aware of the general detachment she felt from her body.
Pain potion. Very strong one at that. Severus.
Sound was vague, odd words and fragments of conversation that made no sense.
Swelling. Spine. Legs. Walk.
So she closed her eyes and fell once more back into the darkness, hoping that the next time she awoke, the world would make sense once more.
